Archive for the 'Nonprofits' Tag Under 'OC Watchdog' Category

She may have been an heir apparent to the world's mightiest Christian broadcasting empire, but Brittany Crouch Koper grew up in Irvine thinking she was a regular kid.

It wasn't until grade school, when the teacher asked what everyone did over winter break, that the truth began to hit. "I said, 'We went to Texas to shoot a family Christmas TV special,'" Koper said, recalling the shock of her classmates. "That's when I started to realize that not everyone was on TV for the holidays, and that my grandparents weren't like other people's grandparents."

Indeed. Her grandparents are Paul and Jan Crouch, founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network empire, which now has 16 global television networks distributed on 76 satellites, multiple foreign and domestic affiliates, and thousands of cable affiliates on every continent save Antarctica, in its own words -- not to mention nearly $1 billion in net assets.

When TV sets came into the classrooms at Woodbridge High School, kids would tune to TBN for kicks. "People who didn't know would say, 'Is that really your grandma?' I was halfway embarrassed and halfway proud. They accomplished so much. You have to be proud of that portion of it. They came from nothing and created this huge empire."

In addition to hiring Brandt as an independent contractor rather than a regular employee (which is cheaper for TBN), and in addition to slurs referencing Brandt's national origin (“Horst runs his department like Nazi Germany during World War II”), the suit maintained that Trinity fired fired Brandt because he was getting long in the tooth.

Network bigwigs (such as Paul and Jan Crouch, left) referred to Brandt as “an old dinosaur,” the building where Brandt worked was regularly referred to as “the old folks home," and senior officials were seeking ways to shave older workers off the payroll, according to statements filed by Crouch granddaughter Brittany Koper, who was then head of human resources for Trinity.

In addition to hiring Brandt as an independent contractor rather than a regular employee (which is cheaper for TBN), and in addition to slurs referencing Brandt's national origin ("Horst runs his department like Nazi Germany during World War II"), the suit maintains that Trinity fired Brandt because he was getting long in the tooth.

"During the last year of Brandt's employment, CEO Paul Crouch Jr. and HR Director Brittany Koper, made repeated discriminatory remarks about older workers," Brandt's complaint says. "For example, in the meeting at which he informed Brandt that he would be fired, Crouch Jr. commented that Paul Crouch, Sr. and Ruth Brown were 'getting up there in age too'....

"Crouch Jr. also stated to a vendor (after firing Brandt) that 'there are some older people here and it is time for a change." Crouch JR. told another vendor that Chief Financial Officer Ruth Brown, 'is getting up there in age and should find something else to do.'

Anyone who has tried to nail down the pay of a public official may well know what it feels like to try to trap a wave upon the sand.

What is reported on, say, a city's web site can be substantially different from what's reported on, say, the state controller's web site, or from what, say, busybodies like us at The Watchdog compute.

Mostly, that's because different folks include different things in the compensation calculation. But sometimes it's much more complicated than even that, and when you ask officialdom to explain, you get the cold shoulder silent treatment.

Ask rabble-rousing state Sen. Leland Yee.

"CSU FAILS TO FULLY DISCLOSE COMPENSATION OF TOP EXECUTIVES," said a release from Yee's office last week. "University officials refuse to answer inquiries, say it's unnecessary to respond to public scrutiny."

There have been repeated requests for it from various corners over the past week, and so, after wrestling with Adobe Acrobat and WordPress, we've broken it into pieces. You can read the documents yourself by clicking on the links below (and if you don't see the document on the first try, hit "reload," and that usually does the trick):

The rather explosive internal records in Koper's declaration were stolen, TBN said. The 180-page document was filed on Thursday, May 10, the day we got it; and sealed on Friday, May 11, until the court decides its fate. Trinity tried to convince the court that we at The Watchdog obtained it illegally, after it was sealed, and that the court should thus stop us from writing about it.

"THE COURT ... HAS SOME POWER OVER THE REGISTER BLOGGER SINCE THE TBN RECORDS ARE ALLEGED TO BE STOLEN, AND THE ORDER SEALING THEM HAS PRECEDED THE THREATENED PUBLICATION BY THE REGISTER," Trinity's motion read.

We'd like to note that there was no threat involved; we simply contacted Trinity's lawyer, Colby May, on Friday, and told him we'd be putting our story together on Monday and would like Trinity's take on it all.

Extravagant meal, hotel and limousine costs -- along with personal expenses charged to the company -- continued to be "a pervasive issue" for the Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, according to an internal review by an accountant that was never meant for outsiders' eyes.

"As stated earlier, control parties of a church are considered to work in a fiduciary capacity on behalf of their congregants and donors," said the March 3, 2011 compliance review by Guinn, Smith & Coof Irving, TX. "The fiduciary duty carries with it the implication that funds will not be spent in an extravagant or unreasonable manner. In the 2009 review of credit card and travel expenses, extravagant meal, hotel and limousine costs were noted, and personal costs which were not reimbursed by the employee were also noted on hotel bills. This continues to be a pervasive issue for control parties of TBN."

"Control parties," translated, means exactly what you think it means: The bigwigs of the Crouch family, who control the world's largest Christian broadcasting empire and its nearly $200 million annual budget, as well as net assets of nearly $1 billion.

Insiders have apparently been ringing warning bells over how the nonprofit Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana spends its millions for quite some time -- but when the granddaughter of Jan and Paul Crouch started getting serious about running a tighter ship, her family turned on her and ultimately called for her head a la John the Baptist, according to explosive documents recently filed (and promptly sealed) in Superior Court.

"We know this is a lot at once, but Michael and I feel it's in TBN's best interest to get these issues resolved to protect the ministry," Brittany Koper wrote to her grandfather, Paul Crouch, in a confidential memo dated Aug. 30, shortly after she and husband Michael Koper were appointed treasurer and secretary.

"We think current TBN practices and procedures violate the IRS Code and State and Federal Laws.... we do not feel comfortable being Secretary/Treasurer without bringing these issues forward," the memo says.

That is among a trove of internal emails, CPA reports, invoices and memos detailing questions about Trinity's spending which reveal, among other things, that grandma Jan Crouch can have a bit of a potty mouth ("OH GOD ARE GRAMMAS EYES OPENED," she wrote in one email regarding more than $1 million spent on a moribund movie. "I M COMING BACK TO GO THRU THAT DEPT LIKE CRAP THRU A GOOSE.")

The tax-exempt status that saved seniors in Laguna Woods Village at least $2.6 million over the years is gone, and the loss could cost the community an additional quarter-million dollars or so each year in payments to Uncle Sam.

In technical parlance, the Golden Rain Foundation -- the big homeowners' association for the city-sized senior community -- has gone from 501(c)4 status to 528 status. In English, that means the association fees seniors pay will continue to be exempt, but income from for-profit activities -- such as clubhouse rentals or golf-course fees -- is not exempt, and will be taxed at a flat rate of 30 percent, according to tax experts.

Now, this status change wasn't the seniors' idea. "The decision to revert to section 528 status is a result of the IRS' scrutiny of tax-exempt homeowner's associations, including GRF," says the community's board of directors. "Both the IRS and the courts have focused on gated communities and have more consistently ruled that restricting access to the common areas does not satisfy the requirements for tax-exempt status. Accordingly, under the current tax environment, the reversion to section 528 status was deemed prudent."

Which is to say that nonprofits are supposed to provide public benefits -- i.e., to the public. Homeowners' associations like GRF provide benefits to their members, not to the public at large. And thus the crackdown.